The present invention relates to sheet dispensers, and more particularly to dispensers for folded and stacked sheets such as paper towels and the like.
Paper towel dispensers of the type wherein folded sheets are taken from the bottom of a stack by pulling from a bottom dispenser opening are well known. Single-fold, C-fold, and multi-fold configurations of the sheets have been commonly used. Multi-fold towels have been introduced recently with towel materials having enhanced softness and absorption; however, these towels have significantly reduced strength. Consequently, the softer high-absorbency multi-fold sheets are unsuitable for use in many existing dispensers, in that the multiple folds have relatively high resistance to being drawn through the bottom opening of the dispenser, being particularly subject to tearing, especially when grasped by wet fingers. Although some dispensers have been developed for feeding the high absorption multi-fold sheets, widespread acceptance of them is hindered by the high cost of replacing large numbers of existing dispensers, particularly those in permanently installed stainless steel cabinets.
A further problem with all dispensers is that rather than being fed as single sheets, clumps of the sheets are likely to fall through the bottom opening, particularly as the supply approaches exhaustion.
Thus there is a need for a way to reliably feed the soft, high absorbency multi-fold sheets in existing dispensers, including those made for single-fold and C-fold sheets. There is a further need for reliably feeding single-fold and C-fold sheets from dispensers that can also feed the multi-fold sheets.